Tag Archives: math

Give your brain an early morning workout every day with Albert. It’s a digital clock that makes you think and do some mental math before giving you what you want– the time. It’s a neat clock to put in your kids’ room and in yours too, specially if the old noodle is in need of some sharpening.

The display shows a mathematical equation instead of the time, and you have to solve it before you can figure out what time of day it is. You can set it to different levels of difficulty and you can start it off at level one, if you’re really that rusty.

Remember solving algebra equations in school? Ya, neither do we. It was one of those things you learnt just before the exam, and quickly expunged from your memory afterwards. It was hard, yo. But how different things might have been had we had something like PhotoMath back then. It’s an application that scans an equation on paper by using your smartphone’s camera, and then proceeds to solve it instantly. Not only do you get your answer right away, you get a step-by-step breakdown of the solution. This sort of immediate feedback can help kids know if they’re on the right track as they’re doing their homework, without having to wait until the next day to find out. Of course, that’s assuming they don’t just abuse the damn thing and skip the thinking part altogether, relying on it to get work done rather than to learn anything. Which is exactly what’s going to happen, so we’re not sure how to feel about it. And, in any case, it only solves simple linear algebraic equations, so you can forget about it helping you with your Calculus. And it’s not even out yet, with a “early 2015” target. Still, if you’re curious about it, you can sign up to be notified when it’s ready for download.

How is it possible that you got this powerful router, and yet this one bathroom on the second floor never gets any darn WiFi? Jason Cole, a PhD student in physics wondered the same thing, but instead of cursing at his phone like most of us do, he decided to investigate. The picture above is the result of his efforts. After “mapping his own apartment and assigning refraction values to the walls, then applying so-called Hemholtz equations to model the electromagnetic waves’, he obtained a clearer view of what happens to the signal as the router is moved around. And while he did determine that the most optimal spot to place it was in the center of his apartment, he couldn’t do that, so he used his work to find the second best spot, one which would generate the most “tendrils” of coverage to the most places.

While most of us don’t have the knowledge to find the optimal spot for our router, the image above does highlight the fact that moving things around even just a little bit can make a rather large difference and that after some trial and error, you may be able to improve your situation dramatically.

The Fibonacci Sequence or the Fibonacci Numbers are arguably one of the most significant series not just in mathematics, but also in the natural world. If you’re uninitiated, the series goes 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13… Each successive number is arrived by adding the two preceding it. And it’s important because it surfaces time and time again in nature, such as in the “branching of trees, the arrangement of leaves on a stem, the fruitlets of a pineapple, the flowering of artichoke or an uncurling fern, and the arrangement of a pine cone.” The cabinet you see above is inspired by the Chinese medicine cabinet, only instead of having drawers all the same size, each of the seven drawers here is sized after a number in the sequence. Made of bamboo, each drawer is independent and the entire cabinet can be rearranged at will.

We love it.

We don’t know how much it is, but it apparently can be bought and is made to order. Hit the jump for a bunch more pictures and links.

OhGizmo! is a frequently updated blog that focuses on covering items that will appeal to a very specific and often very passionate audience: the geek. Aside from the fare of innovative consumer electronic products, the reader can expect to find news about geek culture, absurd inventions, awe inspiring technology, and an ever growing assortment of articles that we like to think fit within our view of what we’re calling the Geek Lifestyle.